How This Father of 9 Uses His Tax Refund

I filed my tax return later than normal this year. Normally, I would have filed as soon as I received my W-2's and my anxiousness to do my taxes is mainly due to the fact that I hate filing taxes and want to get it over with. But, this year, I filed my taxes quite late because, for some reason or another, I felt like we would owe money. I was wrong. Instead, we received a tax refund.

True, I have several things working in my favor:

• I set my withholding to a level where I make sure I receive a return. I still don't know whether this strategy is better than if I brought more of my income as take home.
• My wife and I have 9 children: besides being awesome kids, they also help daddy during tax time.
• I'm a Mormon and paying my tithing (10% of my income) helps during tax time.
• My wife and I do many charitable things throughout the year - that helps too.

So, 2 weeks ago I filed my tax returns and - literally, no joke - the refund came into my checking account this morning. So, here were my initial thoughts as I saw those wonderful words "deposit from US treasury":

1. Put some money aside for the Summer. We just moved to Tennessee from Utah, so a trip out west in the 15 passenger van this summer is now possible. Check.
2. I may or may not buy an iPad. I really want one.
3. I have a small side business in addition to my day job that features private tutors in all subjects, cities, and states. I'm going to use some of the money to do some things to the site so it's more user friendly and actually useful to parents and people looking for a tutor.
4. I'm going to take my wife out for a date - heck, several dates. Yup, a simple, fun date with my wife.
5. I may pay off the little amount we owe on my car. The 15 passenger van is paid off, but we owe a little bit on my little car I drive to work.
6. I think we're going to put some money aside for the kids college.
7. Savings. It's pathetic I would say "savings" last, but there it is. For your finance and budget-holics, you would have said "savings" first. I'll follow your lead next.

Those are my initial thoughts on what I'm going to spend my tax refund on. How about you?